WA college under scrutiny before Careers Australia fall

Camera IconThe Australian School of Management has been in the sights of the industry regulator.

A Perth business college caught up in last week’s collapse of vocational education and training group Careers Australia has been in the sights of the industry regulator since March.

The Australian School of Management, one of 12 Careers Australia companies put into administration, was banned in March from starting new students while the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency examined a big increase in the school’s enrolments.

ASM was fighting the ban through the Administrative Appeals Tribunal when administrators from PPB Advisory took control of Careers Australia on Thursday, closing its 14 campuses and throwing up to 15,000 students into limbo.

ASM and the Australian College of Applied Education, bought from Vocation for $15 million two years ago, anchor Careers Australia’s one Perth campus on Wellington Street. The school, which also has a campus in Melbourne and is chaired by former Federal trade and investment minister Andrew Robb, offers diplomas and bachelor degrees in hospitality, marketing and leadership.

TEQSA intervened when ASM notified the agency that it was poised to start 1416 new students on March 20, effectively tripling enrolments from the 531 domestic and 233 international students studying its courses at the time, including 196 in Perth.

The agency slapped conditions on ASM’s registration, telling the college that “no students, other than those already enrolled and commenced by 20 March, 2017, may be enrolled in ASM higher education course or commence an ASM higher education course”.

It also demanded a raft of information, including board minutes going back to January 2016, the ATAR results of the new students, how they were recruited and details of their fees, and ASM’s admission policies and course requirements.

Last year, under an agreement with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Careers Australia repaid $44 million to the Federal Government and cancelled thousands of enrolments after admitting it broke consumer laws by using “false or misleading representations” to enrol students and sign them up to the now-scrapped VET FEE-HELP loan scheme.

Given its intervention is being disputed in the AAT, TEQSA declined to comment on ASM yesterday.

“The matter remains before the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and it will now be up to ASM’s administrators to decide whether, or how, to progress this appeal,” it said.

In a letter seen by WestBusiness, Mr Robb wrote to TEQSA on May 1, complaining about “the seemingly swift and irrevocable nature” of the agency’s actions but committing to work in a “co-operative and collaborative” manner to address the concerns.

“ASM is in the process of significantly reducing and slowing down its plans for growth, and would seek to reach agreement with both TEQSA and the Department of Education and Training in this regard in any collaborative process,” Mr Robb wrote.

“ASM fully acknowledges the potential risks that concern TEQSA.

“These include ASM’s ability to deliver quality teaching and outcomes, maintaining good levels of student progression and completion, providing appropriate and sufficient student support and engagement, ensuring that students are aware of their rights and obligations, as well as other risks to the higher education sector as a whole.”